RUTAN 339 Space Ship Two (N33955)

RUTAN 339 Space Ship Two (N33955)

I remember hearing about this thing, what, ten years ago? I didn't like the pivoting tail assembly. Don't have a good reason for my dislike, it just looks like trouble, big flappy things stuck way out on the end of long, skinny sticks. If it had been a success I'm sure they would have eventually won me over. They made some test flights, one of the two crashed, and that seems to have been it. I could find no record of any of the planned commercial flights.

The carrier plane carries SpaceShip Two to somewhere around 12 miles high before it releases it. If this photo was taken from the ground, it would have required a really big lens, and careful planning of the drop. I'm thinking this was taken from a chase plane. That would have entailed its own set of problems, but it wouldn't constrain the carrier plane's flight plan.